I need to read this: Thiel embodies all the dangers we face from the far right, the ultra-monied, cut-throat libertarianism and the internet's voyage from utopian vision to roiling mass of hyper deplorables and breeding ground for a sharp departure from critical thinking. At least I think Thiel embodies those things, I haven't read it yet! :: A sharp and disturbing biography. . . . Chafkin’s chronicle of Thiel’s wild abandon during the Obama years contains some of the most suspenseful passages in the book, as the narrative hurtles toward his acquisition of actual political power. . . . The Contrarian is chilling—literally chilling. As I read it, I grew colder and colder, until I found myself curled up under a blanket on a sunny day, icy and anxious. Scared people are scary, and Chafkin’s masterly evocation of his subject’s galactic fear—of liberals, of the U.S. government, of death—turns Thiel himself into a threat. I tried to tell myself that Thiel is just another rapacious solipsist, in it for the money, but I used to tell myself that about another rapacious solipsist, and he became president.  —The New York Times Book Review